The Faces of Ceti - Hardcover

Grade 7 Up-- Arriving at the Tau Ceti system they intend to colonize, 500 Earth pioneers are surprised to find not one, but two habitable planets. An ideological rift between them suggests a division of the colonists, and the absorbing plot follows the struggle for survival on the smaller planet, surrounded by harsh conditions, poisonous plants, and the native, possibly intelligent, hlur. These are interesting animals, something like burbling kangaroos, and the question of whether they are sentient fuels a heated debate about killing and eating them in the face of a severe food shortage. Teenagers Maya and Brock risk their lives to discover the secret of the hlur and why they can eat the indigenous plants when earthlings cannot. A final act of treachery from the other planet's colony, and its ironic aftermath, conclude a story with just the right combination of politics and action. It is sometimes difficult to tell some of the adults apart, but Maya is a particularly sympathetic character, and her situation growing up in an unearthly society with new rules and seeking to reconcile love with duty is a thought-provoking one. For fans of Pamela Sargent and H. M. Hoover. --Lyle Blake Smythers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.